Original news was published on 29 July, 2014

The governments of China and Argentina have signed an agreement that paves the way for a third Canadian reactor to be built at Argentina’s Atucha nuclear power plant, and effectively voids an agreement made with Russia earlier this month that included a proposal from Russia to build Atucha III.

The agreement was signed last week by President Xi Jinping of China and President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina during a conference in Buenos Aires. State-owned China National Nuclear Company will work with utility Nucleoelectrica Argentina, which holds the technology rights for Candu reactors. Candu Energy is a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Group, which is headquartered in Montreal.

Under the agreement, CNNC will provide goods and services under long-term financing provided by China. CNNC operates two Candu 6 units at its Qinshan plant in China’s Zhejiang province. The two companies will work together on the engineering, operation and maintenance of reactor pressure tubes as well as the manufacturing, licensing and storage of nuclear fuel. Nucleoelectrica Argentina will operate the plant once it has been completed.

But the agreement extends beyond a new reactor at Atucha. It calls for the transfer of Chinese technology to Argentina, which means Argentina could act as a technology platform, supplying third countries with nuclear technology, according to World Nuclear News.

The new reactor would bring Atucha’s generating capacity up to about 2,000 megawatts, about double its current capacity. While construction began on a second reactor at Atucha in 1981, but was delayed for 18 years as a result of political and economic volatility. Atucha II began generating power just last month. Argentina may also add a fourth and fifth unit to the nuclear complex, a plan that was addressed in the earlier Russian agreement, but may go to China now that it has bagged the Atucha III deal.

*NEWS SOURCE